Were there African Vikings?

Question:Elements of all the above are true.There could have been black men among Vikings.Vikings were often hired by the Moorish rulers in Spain and Byzantine Emperors in the east. This practice insulated the sitting regent from his rivals within his own court under the assumption that foreign mercenaries would have no stake in usurping power.
In those presumed contexts it is possible that blacks might join a Viking party although I'm not aware of any hard historical evidence of such..
As for Sidney Poitier, that character was in the novel that the movie was based on as a Moor. It was not a cynical attempt at appeasement by Hollywood at all

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Elements of all the above are true.There could have been black men among Vikings.Vikings were often hired by the Moorish rulers in Spain and Byzantine Emperors in the east. This practice insulated the sitting regent from his rivals within his own court under the assumption that foreign mercenaries would have no stake in usurping power.
In those presumed contexts it is possible that blacks might join a Viking party although I'm not aware of any hard historical evidence of such..
As for Sidney Poitier, that character was in the novel that the movie was based on as a Moor. It was not a cynical attempt at appeasement by Hollywood at all

The Vikings came from the Scandinavian countries and were Norsemen. So by definition, there could not be any African Vikings. The Vikings may have had African counterparts - warriors who went out to rape, loot and pillage - but the Africans could not be Vikings.

descendents,probably...Vikings tended to take "wives"along coastlines,have children,and go back to sea...ever seen a red headed black man??

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/3010.html

There was a movie about the Vikings where one of the actors was Sydney Poitier. It was made at the time when Hollywood felt the need to have a B l a c k African American in every film, regardless of coherence. Nevertheless, the role played bt Mr. Poitier was that of an Arab king of a city attacked by the Vikings.

Maybe you got the idea from this. As has been said before, no, no African Vikings.

No they were Europeans from the most northerly part of that continents.
The coasts of the Arab Mahgreb in North Africa saw frequent raids during their heyday.

no.